Jack Tier eBook

“Well, den, seven, if you like dat better.
I wants just half, and just half I means to git.”

“And half you shall have, maty. I only
wish you would just tell me where we shall be, when
we gets in.”

“How I know, white man? Dat belong to skipper,
and better ask him. If he do n’t gib you
lick in de chop, p’rhaps he tell you.”

As Jack Tier had no taste for “licks in the
chops,” he did not follow Josh’s advice.
But his agreeing to give half of the ten dollars to
the steward kept peace in the cabins. He was even
so scrupulous of his word, as to hand to Josh a half-eagle
that very day; money he had received from Rose; saying
he would trust to Providence for his own half of the
expected douceur. This concession placed Jack
Tier on high grounds with his “superior officer,”
and from that time the former was left to do the whole
of the customary service of the ladies’ cabin.

As respects the vessel, nothing worthy of notice occurred
until she had passed Loggerhead Key, and was fairly
launched in the Gulf of Mexico. Then, indeed,
Spike took a step that greatly surprised his mate.
The latter was directed to bring all his instruments,
charts, &c., and place them in the captain’s
state-room, where it was understood they were to remain
until the brig got into port. Spike was but an
indifferent navigator, while Mulford was one of a higher
order than common. So much had the former been
accustomed to rely on the latter, indeed, as they
approached a strange coast, that he could not possibly
have taken any step, that was not positively criminal,
which would have given his mate more uneasiness than
this.

At first, Mulford naturally enough suspected that
Spike intended to push for some Mexican port, by thus
blinding his eyes as to the position of the vessel.
The direction steered, however, soon relieved the
mate from this apprehension. From the eastern
extremity of Yucatan, the Mexican coast trends to
the westward, and even to the south of west, for a
long distance, whereas the course steered by Spike
was north, easterly. This was diverging from the
enemy’s coast instead of approaching it, and
the circumstance greatly relieved the apprehensions
of Mulford.

Nor was the sequestration of the mate’s instruments
the only suspicious act of Spike. He caused the
brig’s paint to be entirely altered, and even
went so far toward disguising her, as to make some
changes aloft. All this was done as the vessel
passed swiftly on her course, and everything had been
effected, apparently to the captain’s satisfaction,
when the cry of “land-ho!” was once more
heard. The land proved to be a cluster of low,
small islands, part coral, part sand, that might have
been eight or ten in number, and the largest of which
did not possess a surface of more than a very few
acres. Many were the merest islets imaginable,
and on one of the largest of the cluster rose a tall,